Khmer Krom

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Khmer Krom (Khmer: ; Vietnamese: Khơ-me Crôm or Khơ-me dưới, which literally means "Khmer from below" ("below" referring to the lower areas of the Mekong Delta), are the indigenous ethnic Khmer minority living in southern Vietnam, especially in the delta of the Mekong River.

Origins

Khmer Krom, ethnically the same as the Khmer people of Cambodia, are descendants of the Khmer that inhabited the delta of the Mekong prior to the arrival of the Vietnamese. Beginning in the 17th century, the colonization of the area by Vietnamese settlers migrating south has isolated the Khmer from their brethren in Cambodia proper and resulted in the native Khmer becoming a minority in that part of their homeland.

According to Vietnamese government figures (1999 census), Khmer Krom total 1,055,174 people. However, this number is disputed as a gross underestimate by Khmer Krom organizations.

History

The plight of the Khmer Krom has been a contentious issue between the governments of Vietnam and Cambodia. After the French conquest in 1859, the French colonial administration confirmed the separation of the Mekong delta from the rest of Cambodia, administering it as the separate colony of Cochinchina, despite the fact that the Khmer Krom were still largely the majority in the area at the time. When independence was granted to French Indochina in 1954, the delta of the Mekong was included in the state of South Vietnam, despite protests from Cambodia. In the 1970s, the Khmer Rouge regime attacked Vietnam in an attempt to reconquer those areas of the delta still predominantly inhabited by Khmer Krom people, but this military adventure was a total disaster and precipitated the invasion of Cambodia by the Vietnamese army and subsequent downfall of the Khmer Rouge, with Vietnam occupying Cambodia.

Current Situation

Many independent NGOs have reported that the human rights of the Khmer Krom are being violated by the Vietnamese government.^{[[Citing sources citation needed]]} Khmer Krom are reportedly forced to Vietnamize and adopt Vietnamese family names and Vietnamese language.^{[[Citing sources citation needed]]} Education of Khmer Krom is neglected and they face many hardships in everyday life, such as difficult access to Vietnamese health services (recent epidemics of blindness affecting children have been reported in the predominantly Khmer Krom areas of the Mekong delta^{[[Citing sources citation needed]]}), difficulty in practicing their religion (Khmer Krom are Theravada Buddhists, like Cambodian and Thai people, but unlike Vietnamese who are Mahayana Buddhists or Catholics), difficulty in finding jobs outside of the fields, and societal racism.^{[[Citing sources citation needed]]} The Khmer Krom are the poorest segment of the population in southern Vietnam.^{[[Citing sources citation needed]]}

Unlike other minority people groups of Vietnam, the Khmer Krom are largely unknown in the western world, despite efforts by associations of exiled Khmer Krom such as the Khmers Kampuchea Krom Federation to publicize their issues with the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation. No western government has raised the matter of the Khmer Krom's human rights with the Vietnamese government.

External links

• [Khmers Kampuchea-Krom Federation (KKF)]
• [Khmer Krom news and information network]
• [Khmer Krom: A Royal Solution for a Nationalist Vietnam] reported by Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation

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